Blogs

Titled Photography and Cinema, from A to Z, the lecture will take the form of twenty-six short reflections on still and moving images. It will consider the relations between Photography and Cinema:stillness and movement, cinema’s changing attitude to the depiction of photographers on screen, the freeze frame and the art of the film publicity still.

The lecture series, newly established by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, will provide a platform for perspectives on photogra­phy, the moving image and the relationship between the two. Presented in partnership with the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre, Birkbeck.

David Campany is an internationally renowned writer and curator. His books include On Photographs (2022), So Present, So Invisible – conversations on photography (2018), Walker Evans: the magazine work (2014), Gasoline (2013), Jeff Wall: Picture for Wom­en (2010), Art and Photography (2003) and Photography and Cinema, which received the 2009 Kraszna-Krausz Award. He has written over two hundred essays for, among others, Tate, MoMA New York, Cen­tre Pompidou, The Photographers’ Gallery London, and the Stedelijk Museum. Many of his touring exhibitions have combined still and moving images, including William Klein -YES: Photographs, Paint­ings, Films 1948-2013 (2022), A Trillion Sunsets: a Century of Image Overload (2021), A Handful of Dust (2015-2020), The Open Road: pho­tography and the American road trip (2016- 2019); The Still Point of the Turning World: Between Film and Photography (2017); Victor Burgin: A Sense of Place (2013); Anonymes: Unnamed America in Photogra­phy and Film (2010); and Hannah Collins: Current History (2010). He was the curator of the six-museum Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, (Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg, Germany) which opened in February 2020.

The KRASZNA-KRAUSZ LECTURE 2024
Photography and Cinema, from A to Z, by David Campany
6.30pm, Tuesday 16 April 2024
Clore Lecture Theatre (CLO B01), Birkbeck, University of London, Clore Management Centre, Torrington Square, WC1E 7JL
Free, booking essential - Book your ticket here
Doors open 6pm. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception

Image: © Chris Marker, frame from La Jetée, 1962 courtesy Argos Films

In conjunction with its Bert Hardy exhibition this one-day conference invites participants to rethink existing narratives concerning post-war photography and its legacies.  Known for his work on the seminal British publication Picture Post, Bert Hardy is a pivotal figure in British photography. We will examine the formal qualities of Hardy’s photographs and the material conditions in which they were produced, reflecting, too, on discussions surrounding photojournalism to expand contemporary debates related to image-making today.

Key themes include ethics of social documentary practices; image circulation and the printed image; and broader questions on representation and methodologies in photojournalism.

Photographing Britain
Friday, 10 May 2024, 1200-1730
The Photographers' Gallery, London 
£15, £10 (members and concessions)
Book here: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/conference-photographing-britain?mc_cid=df96de44d4&mc_eid=355dc0ec8f

With support from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. 

See details of the Bert Hardy exhibition here: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/bert-hardy-photojournalism-war-and-peace

The Dutch National Archives has announced that the Archive's photogeraphy collections including the Spaarnestad Photo Foundation will close to users effective from April 1, 2024. The Spaarnestad collection, which consists of approximately 15 million photos, will be preserved as a collection in its entirety. 

The National Archives has been working with the foundation since 2010 and has the collection in its possession. Until now, the services surrounding the collection were provided by Spaarnestad Photo, which is no longer sustainable. More than 1 million photos are accessible via the National Archives' image bank. About 400,000 photos are digitally available and downloadable to everyone. This remains the case.

The Dutch Archives states that the closure was necessary for the bulk of the collection - some 800,000 photographs - because copyright and/or image rights apply to them. The National Archives is currently in discussions with an external party to provide the services previously provided by the Spaarnestad Photo Foundation in the short term. 

Spaarnestad Photo provided services for the Spaarnestad collection, so that (copy)rights holders received payment for image use. A solution to the issue of copyright payments is currently being worked on. Part of the payments for images went to Spaarnestad to cover costs.  Even though the foundation will cease to exist on 1 April 2024, the collection will be preserved in its entirety.  The NA is currently considering next steps for specific services to museums, media, publishers and other external users.

The Dutch national Archives  manages 15 million photos, with more than one million online. The photo collection provides an overview of events from the period between 1865 and 1990. Of these  more than 400,000 high-resolution photographs are available for use for free. The National Archives has relinquished its copyright for most of these photographs and they can be used freely, including in commercial publications.

The closure has prompted an outcry from historians and users and claims that the Archive's photography collections have a low priorities with a lack of trained staff to support them.  

Spaarnestad Photo Foundation runs one of the world’s largest photographic archives, managing a collection of over 13,000,000 images, specializing in Dutch life dated from 1867 through until the digital era. It is undoubtedly the richest visual resource documenting how Dutch people lived and breathed in the mid to late 19th and entire 20th centuries. In the collection you can find art, culture, festivals, inventions, fashion, food, housing, traffic, healthcare, business and finance imagery and much, much more.

Working hand in hand with the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands, the complete physical collection is recognized as a national heritage. Since 2011 the photo collection has been rehoused and is conserved at their depot in The Hague, while Spaarnestad Photo handles the professional usage.

See: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/nieuws/de-spaarnestad-collectie

https://spaarnestadphoto.nl/spaarnestad-photo

Image: Fotocollectie Spaarnestad Onderwerpen / 477067_006

The publication of Through Shaded Glass – women and photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860-1960 (Te Papa Press, 2023) represents a significant milestone in foregrounding the involvement and photographic work of over 190 women makers of photography in Aotearoa prior to 1960.

The book draws on years of primary research locating names, photographs and researching the lives of women photographers. The book explores photographic practise where women have made strong contributions and which have been sidelined or overlooked in this country’s photographic histories to date such as collaborative working practises, photographers and the Second World War, non-binary practises, and the involvement of Māori women in making early photography here.

This illustrated talk will focus on the hidden legacies of women photographers. Of particular focus will be the tension between the lives and work of a selection of photographers working during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Lissa Mitchell is a photographic historian and curator of photography at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. They are the author of Through Shaded Glass - women and photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860 to 1960 (Te Papa Press, 2023) and have contributed to numerous publications including An Alternative History of Photography (Prestel, 2022) and Brian Brake – Lens on the World (Te Papa Press, 2010).

Through Shaded Glass - women and photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1860 to 1960
Lissa Mitchell, hosted by National Library of New Zealand
Online:  Wednesday 3 April 2024, 12:10 p.m. to 1 p.m; (12am UK)
Register: https://dia-nz.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GHdzwYtAQka18PAYF1ZXyw#/registration

The nature, form, and impact of the book changed dramatically with the introduction of photography, altering the way books would be made, would appear, and would help transform the communication of ideas in visual form.

In parallel to this phenomenon, the ability of the photograph to reach its widest audience would entail an essential partnership with the form of the book. The nomenclature of photography remains tied to the book: we think of the photographic “print” and of “printing” a photograph, even in an era where digital imagery dominates. 

Alongside these intertwined histories is the current phenomenon of the “photobook,” with a great resurgence and flowering of studies on photobooks, and of contemporary photography’s increased creative engagement with the format of the book through dealers, fairs, specialized auction sales, and publications, and through a wealth of practice. 

This course is designed to explore the history of the photographic book since Anna Atkins’s Photographs of British Algae was first privately circulated in 1843. It will be comprised of six two-hour sessions delivered online, based on the collections of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

The six sessions will emphasize the physical form of the photographic book, an element neglected by most of the recent studies of the genre. It aims, therefore, to bring together the twin disciplines of the history of the book and the history of photography. Classes will be structured around the examination of exemplar cases—and will examine these case studies through paying close attention to the materiality of the books: paper, printing techniques, and design, as well as distribution, sales, and prices. Many of the examples will be illuminated through supporting archival evidence.

Topics

Introduction and Overview to the Course / The Earliest Photobooks

• Bibliography and historiography of the photographic book, from Johann Heinrich Schulze to Martin Parr and Gerry Badger
• Outline of history of technology of reproducing photographic images
• Early experiments in the photographic book: Anna Atkins, William Henry Fox Talbot, Hill & Adamson 

The Nineteenth Century, Photography in Silver and the Pasted-in Print

• From paper to glass negatives; salted paper prints to albumen
• The Blanquard-Evrard era: August Salzmann, Maxime Du Camp
• The Albumen era: Francis Frith, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alexander Gardner, George Washington Wilson 

Not Fade Away: The Rise of the Photomechanical Processes

•  Photogravure, carbon prints, woodburytype, collotype
• Nasmyth and Carpenter, The Moon; Men of Mark; John Thomson; P. H. Emerson; Gertrude Kasebier, Camera Work

Fit to Print: Photography in Ink and the Mass Image

•  The half-tone and rotogravure
• Germaine Krull, the rise of the picture magazines, Walker Evans, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, Brassai, August Sander, Bill Brandt, Henri Cartier-Bresson 

The Ubiquitous Image: Photolithography 

• The continued evolution of photolithography
• Ed Ruscha, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Martin Parr, Diane Arbus, Josef Koudelka, Daido Moriama, Eikoh Hosoe, Killed by Roses; Richard Benson and the mastery of photolithography, The Work of Atget; Madonna’s Sex
• Innovation in the photobook: the integration with digital Susan Meiselas Nicaragua
•  Making a photobook: Martin Parr, Oxford (2018), and a glimpse inside the Steidl printing shop

The Photographic Book since 1843
Delivered by Richard Ovenden, for Rare Book School
Course Length: 12 hours
Schedule: 1–5 July 2024
Format: Online
Fee: $800

Details: https://rarebookschool.org/courses/illustration/i45v/

At the Rijksmuseum, we conduct cutting-edge research into our collection every day. For example, delving into the stories behind the photos or the purposes for which they were created. As a curator of photography, you connect history and art, making important themes from past and present visible. It's a challenging position where you bridge art, history, society, and the public.

You'll be responsible for the collection of photography from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries and closely involved in all aspects of scientific research, publication, and interpretation of works in this field. You'll also propose new acquisitions and play a significant role in exhibitions and presentations.

Your main tasks are:

• Carefully managing the assigned collections and ensuring their registration and accessibility;
• Conducting scientific research and publishing on photography;
• Organizing and contributing to exhibitions and smaller presentations;
• Sharing expertise with both specialists and a wider audience through publications, lectures, and tours;
• Monitoring the art market and proposing acquisitions of photography for the museum;
• Maintaining contacts with collectors;
• Representing the Rijksprentenkabinet in the field.

Curator of Photohgraphy
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Closes, 29 March 2024
See: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/careers/vacancies/curator-of-photography--1058431

Photo Oxford has appointed Katy Barron as its new director. She has been involved in Photo Oxford since 2021 and played a key role in the delivery of the last highly successful festival. Katy is a photography curator, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Photofusion and has worked with museums, galleries, festivals, collectors and artists. She studied at the Courtauld Institute and Magdalen College Oxford. 

Paul Bullivant, chair of Photo Oxford said: "We are delighted to be working with Katy and look forward to sharing her passion, energy and ideas with you. I also want to take this opportunity to confirm that the next Photo Oxford Festival will take place in October and November 2025. Meanwhile we are running a series of exciting events with a range of partners during 2024 and in the run-up to the festival next year".

Katy can be reached at: e: katy@photooxford.org

The National Trust has launched its new book 100 Photographs. The book was showcased with a public talk from national curator of photographs Anna Sparham at The Photography and Video Show on 17 March, followed by a launch event in partnership with the book's sponsor CEWE.

Spanning the history of photography from the 1840s to the present day, the book showcases 100 photographs chosen from the more than 250,000 held in collections at Trust properties. Alongside works by photographers such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Chambré Hardman, Dorothy Wilding, Angus McBean and Jane Bown are remarkable images captured by less familiar practitioners. Professional studio portraits, landscapes and images of war sit beside family groups, domestic scenes and travel photographs by talented amateurs who provide glimpses into the way we have viewed and recorded the world over the last two centuries. Many of these photographs have only recently been discovered and are reproduced here for the first time. More than 25 per cent of the photographers highlighted are women. 

The book is currently available through National Trust shops and then through bookshops from 4 April 2024. 

100 Photographs. From the Collections of the National Trust
Anna Sparham, with an introduction from Robin Muir
National Trust, 2024
£10, hardback, 224 pages
Order from the Trust: https://shop.nationaltrust.org.uk/100-photographs-from-the-collections-of-the-national-trust.html

Photographs: © Michael Pritchard

The 200th anniversary of the birth of photographic pioneer, Thomas Sims (1824-1910) is 26 March. A new blog, based on recent research, looks back at his career based on the valuable insight in letters from the Wallace Correspondence Project. They reveal more about his home and business life.

The Thomas Sims collection, consisting of notebooks, letters, documents, photographic images and equipment, is held by The Amelia Scott (formerly Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery). A temporary display celebrating Sims will be on show in The Amelia’s Welcome Hall from next week. 

A Wikipedia entry is also under development. 

Read the post here: https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/200th-anniversary-birth-early-photographer-thomas-sims-alfred-russel-wallaces-brother-law

Image: Daguerreotype portrait of Thomas Sims as a young man. (Ref: 1936.01.6).

Tate London has appointed Singaporean Charmaine Toh as Senior Curator International Art (Photography). She replaces Dr Yasufumi Nakamori who was appointed in 2018 and has returned to the United States. 

Charmaine Toh has curated over 30 exhibitions ranging from small solo shows in independent spaces to large survey exhibitions in museums. At her former role as Senior Curator at National Gallery Singapore, she led the exhibitions Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asia (2022), Chua Soo Bin: Truths and Legends (2019) and Earth Work 1979 (2016) and contributed to Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia (2018-2019) and Siapa Nama Kamu: Art in Singapore since the 19th century (2015).

Prior to that, Toh curated exhibitions at ACC Gwangju (2015), the Fukutake House at the Setouchi Triennale (2013) and BankArt Yokohama (2011). She was also co-curator of the 2013 Singapore Biennale. With extensive commissioning experience, she has worked with artists such as Danh Vo, Ho Tzu Nyen, Erika Tan, Amanda Heng, Vertical Submarine, Li Hui and Matthew Ngui. Charmaine is also the founder and Director of The Art Incubator (2009-2015), where she worked with over 20 emerging artists to develop new work via residency programmes.

She received her PhD from the University of Melbourne. She is the author of Imagining Singapore: Pictorial Photography from the 1950s to the 1970s (Brill, 2023). She has published in numerous catalogues and journals, and has contributed to Survey Practices and Landscape Photography Across the Globe (Routledge, 2022) and An Alternative History of Photography (Prestel, 2022). She is the editor of History and Imagination: Modern Photography from Singapore (2021), Earth Work 1979 (2016) and Reflect/Refract: Essays on Photography (2013).

See also:

https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tate-modern-appoints-senior-curator-international-art-photography
https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tate-modern-s-simon-baker-leaves-for-paris
https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/tate-britain-appoints-kate-bush-to-a-new-curatorial-role

The Photographic Collections Network is a specialist subject network, providing support for UK photographic collections. PCN aims to ensure that the value of photographic collections is acknowledged and maximised for the public benefit, in order that people can understand their own heritage and that of others.
 
We are on the journey to becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), and this will bring great opportunities for us to expand our reach and provide support for the UKs photographic collections and heritage. We are looking for people to help us to build this potential so we can better deliver on our aims. Are you the person that can help lead this change? We are looking to recruit Trustees to help steer our organisation during an exciting period in its development.

As part of PCNs commitment to supporting photographic collections and heritage, we need to develop our organisation and our sustainable future. As part of this journey we are looking to create a new board of trustees. We are also looking to secure long term sustainable premises that better support our activities and ambition. 
Currently we are seeking an interim Treasurer while we set up PCN as a CIO. There is the opportunity for the interim Treasure to apply to remain as PCN Treasurer when CIO status is achieved. At this time we will recruit additional Trustee roles. 

Our ideal candidate for the interim Treasurer would have accountancy qualification or an equivalent level of experience and expertise in accountancy and charity finance and reporting. A person working in Finance, Governance, Legal, with Charity experience either through an executive or previous Trustee role would be suitable. The candidate Ideally would have professional experience with organisational Governance and Financial management. A background in the photography or understanding of collections sector is not necessary but an enthusiasm and interest in the charitable sector is. If you have any of the skills listed above, we would love to hear from you.

Interim Treasurer Role:
Key to our fiscal responsibility we require a treasurer to oversee our finances as we become a CIO and continue to deliver our engagement programme for the Museums, Collections and Photographic Heritage sector supported by Arts Council England. The interim Treasurer will liaise with relevant staff, advisory board and Board members to ensure the financial viability of the organisation.

You will oversee the financial matters of the Photographic Collections Network in line with good practice and in accordance with the governing document and legal requirements, and report to the Board of Trustees at regular intervals about the financial health of the organisation. The interim Treasurer will ensure that effective financial measures, controls and procedures are put in place, and are appropriate for the charity.

PCN welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds and would love to hear from applicants who belong to groups underrepresented in the charitable sector.

Full details here: https://www.photocollections.org.uk/news

The University of Westminster and the Museum of the Home (MotH) are delighted to announce a call for applicants for a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2024, under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP4) scheme.This PhD will be the first to research the relationship between the home darkroom and LGBTQ+ people’s quest for freedom of expression and visual representation in Britain from the 1950s to the present. The project will combine the archival study of LGBTQ+ photographic practices at home with two complementary collecting projects: oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ darkroom users and photographs of and produced in home darkrooms. By working with contemporary practitioners, the student will also rethink how to share such hidden stories with museum audiences.

This project will be jointly supervised:

• at the University of Westminster by Dr Sara Dominici (Senior Lecturer in Photographic History and Visual Culture), Professor Pippa Catterrall (Professor of History and Policy), and Dr Alison Hesse (Lecturer in Museum and Gallery Studies) 

• at the Museum of the Home by Marina Maniadaki (Exhibitions and Project Manager) and Louis Platman (Curator) 

The student will be expected to spend time at both the University of Westminster and the Museum of the Home, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK. The student will have access to the same levels of training, support, and expertise as members of staff at the Museum of the Home, thus developing core museum skills alongside academic capabilities.

Project overview

This practice-based PhD adopts an interdisciplinary approach to researching, collecting, and engaging museum audiences in the untold story of the relationship between the home darkroom and LGBTQ+ people’s quest for freedom of expression and visual representation in Britain from the 1950s to the present. First, the project will investigate how the home darkroom has shaped LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of their domestic environment and, relatedly, of their own photographic practice, and influenced the history of LGBTQ+ visual culture more widely. Second, in consultation with contemporary practitioners it will conduct and collect oral history interviews, and research and collect photographs of and produced in home darkrooms, to rethink museological approaches to interpreting such largely hidden stories of making and identity.    

Despite the expansion of commercial processing labs from the 1950s, rigging up a darkroom in the home thrived as a hobby because it offered creative control over and a cheaper way of producing photographs. Following the rise of digital photography and the almost entire closure of commercial labs from the 2000s, the home darkroom has supported a resurgence of interest in film photography. For LGBTQ+ people, however, developing and printing at home also allowed visual records to be created privately. This has historically been crucial because of the risk of embarrassment (or worse) if certain images were sent to commercial processors, which persisted even after partial decriminalisation in 1967. And yet, while the role played by Polaroids (which similarly removed the need for commercial labs) in LGBTQ+ people’s lives is well known, their experiences of the home darkroom is largely unexplored. 

Uniting the emerging field of darkroom research with studies of the home, this PhD will unearth and collect stories of personal and collective identity through the close analysis of a domestic, creative practice. Viewing the home darkroom as a vehicle for human agency and creativity in the LGTBQ+ fight for acceptance and representation, the home can be seen as shaped by the politics of inclusion, exclusion, and inequalities. The darkroom is not a neutral container for photographic production, rather, it is a generative space that has an important influence on those who operate within it. The as-yet-unexplored intersections of home and darkroom will thus provide new insights on how LGBTQ+ people explored and expressed their world through image-making, and, in the process, created their own ideas of home and photographic practice. 

The core research aims are: 

1. To explore, for the first time, the fundamental role played by the domestic environment in fostering a material and imaginative space within which photographic representation of LGBTQ+ life in Britain could be created. 

2. To research and collect: i) LGBTQ+ people’s memories and lived experiences of the home darkroom in Britan from the 1950s to the present, and ii) photographs of and that were produced in this space, in order to understand how the home darkroom has shaped LGBTQ+ histories and perspectives. 

3. To diversify the understanding of home, and, consequently, the experience of the museum, by developing a new museological approach to sharing LGBTQ+ stories of image-making at home. 

While the student who undertakes the work will be encouraged to choose their own focus, they will be expected to appraise the relationship between home darkroom practices and LGBTQ+ lives in relation to these three complementary aims. The research questions will be developed in consultation with the student, but may include the following:

• How has the home darkroom shaped LGBTQ+ people’s experiences and understandings of their domestic environment? 

• What creative, social, and political agency has developing and printing photographs in the home afforded or constrained? 

• How can such hidden histories of making in the home be collected, evaluated, and brought to wider audiences? 

Methods and sources

This PhD will combine research into photographic literature with oral histories and museum collecting strategies, and consult with contemporary practitioners. Specifically:   

• The study of the textual and visual materials, including grey literature (eg Hall-Carpenter Archives at the LSE Library, LGBTQ+ Archives at Bishopsgate Institute), that have supported photographers in practicing photography at home

• The PhD candidate will consult the British Library’s LGBTQ+ Oral History archives and the Museum of the Home Documenting Homes collection to learn about how LGBTQ+ experiences have changed over time, and then conduct oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ people who have used/are currently using the darkroom in their home in Britain

• Using focus groups, the PhD will bring into dialogue contemporary home darkroom users with historical legacies of processing photographs at home to examine the role and significance that the home darkroom plays in people’s everyday lives today

All prospective students are strongly advised to first make informal contact with the lead supervisor. Dr Sara Dominici (s.dominici1@westminster.ac.uk).The deadline for applications is 5pm (BST) on Friday 17th May 2024Interviews will be held on Wednesday 5th June 2024Full details here: https://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees/studentships/ahrc-collaborative-doctoral-partnership-cdp-studentship-the-home-darkroom-and-the-freedom-of-photographic-production-in-britain-1950s-present

As part of the Women and Worlds of Learning in Europe: From the Medieval to the Modern Day conference, Rose Teanby, a PhD student at De Montfort University, will present a paper on Friday, 12th April, titled 'A Woman’s Place?: Photographic Education in England 1839 – 1861'

Women and Worlds of Learning in Europe: From the Medieval to the Modern Day
12-13 April 2024 (|registration closes 31 March 2024)
Oxford, History Faculty Building, George Street
£8 (without conference dinner)
Details: https://www.womenandworldsoflearning.com/

The Photographers’ Gallery has announced the appointment Amanda Gray as the new Chair of the  Board of Trustees. Working closely with Director Shoair Mavlian, Amanda will lead the Board in supporting the Gallery’s vision to be the home for next generation photography.

Amanda Gray is a Partner at international law firm, Mishcon de Reya, specialising in art law and the related field of luxury assets. Amanda has been a trustee of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA); is the Honorary Legal Counsel for Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, Sussex; is the co-chair of the Art Lawyers Association; and is also a member of the Responsible Art Market committee, London Chapter.

Amanda Gray said: “It is such a pleasure to be joining The Photographers' Gallery to work with Shoair Mavlian and her team. The Photographers' Gallery has a rich and vibrant creative legacy of photographic programming, exhibitions and curatorship and it is an exciting time to be involved in the Gallery's next phase. Since 1971, The Photographers' Gallery has held a central and leading role in the history of photography.  It is therefore such an honour to play a small part in this treasured institution's journey as it continues to flourish. The photographic image has never been more significant in witnessing and commentating on our society and the recent sell-out Daidō Moriyama show was indicative of that. As a visitor to the gallery in Great Newport Street many years ago, I could scarcely have imagined that I would find myself lucky enough to step into this role many years later. I have large shoes to fill and I hope I can achieve half as much as former Chairs, such as  Matthew Stephenson and Michelle Shuttleworth, who have done so much for the Gallery.”

Director of The Photographers’ Gallery, Shoair Mavlian said: “I’m delighted to welcome Amanda Gray to The Photographers’ Gallery as our new Chair of Trustees. Amanda brings with her a wealth of experience which I’m sure will support the Gallery’s goals and purpose over the coming years. It is an exciting time for the Gallery and we look forward to welcoming Amanda into The Photographers’ Gallery community.”

The Photographers’ Gallery explores how photography is connecting, captivating and radically changing our world today. The Gallery’s programme and spaces – from exhibitions, events and digital platforms, to the galleries, shop and cafe – all explore the beauty, complexity and future of photography. Right outside the Gallery, the very best of contemporary photography is shown for free, day and night, in Soho Photography Quarter. tpg.org.uk

The UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published visitor numbers for its sponsored museums. The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) has also done the same. Of particular interest are those for the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford. Other photography venues such as the V&A Museum do not report individual gallery visitor numbers, and other venues report numbers in annual reports, or to sponsoring bodies such as Arts Council England.

NSMM:   

The NSMM closed in June 2023 with an expected re-opening date of late 2024, ready for 2025's Bradford Year of Culture. 

ALVA has published visitor numbers back to 2006 and BPH has reported historical numbers in the past. 

The Ben Uri Gallery and Museum recently hosted an interview with James Hyman, art historian, gallerist, curator and co-founder, with Claire, of the Centre of British Photography. The interview looked at James's early education, his career as a critic and art historian, and as a gallery owner. It then turned to the Hyman Collection (41m 50s), photography in Britain (42m 31s), and audiences for photography (44m 20s). James notes "photography is one of the best value areas of the enture art market".

The ethos and thinking behind the Centre for British Photography is explained (50m 10s) and James then turns to the current position of the Centre and its aspirations for the future (1h 00m 03s) which include educational partnerships, touring exhibitions and acquiring phootgraphers' archives.

It's an engaging interview throughout. 

James Hyman interviewed about his career in the art world from James Hyman Gallery on Vimeo.

or link here: https://vimeo.com/753828812

The Jan/Feb 2024 issue of Stereo World carries new research by Rebecca Sharpe in to the Stamford photographer and stereographer Elizabeth Higgins (1828-1899). The research was prompted by the discovery of stereocards by Higgins dating from c1859.  

Rebecca Sharpe, 'The hidden depths of Elizabeth Higgins (1828-1899). Early Lincolnshire stereo photographer'
Stereo World, v.49, no. 4 (Jan-Feb) 2024, 12-19

There is also some information on Higgins here: https://www.stamfordsightsandsecretstours.com/virtual-tour-stamford-women/2020/11/28/elizabeth-higgins-photographer 

Image: Elizabeth Higgins, St Peter's Collis Almshouses, All Saint's Street, Stamford, c1859., one-half of a stereo pair.

Join the V&A for an exploration of the work of one of Vogue’s first and most influential fashion and portrait photographers. During his glittering career in Europe and America, George Hoyningen-Huene collaborated with the likes of Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst and Lee Miller, and befriended Hollywood’s brightest stars. V&A Curator Lydia Caston and Condé Nast Corporate Photography Director Ivan Shaw join author Susanna Brown to discuss Hoyningen-Huene’s extraordinary life and legacy.

This event celebrates the publication of the major new book from Thames & Hudson, George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion, Film.

George Hoyningen-Huene: Photography, Fashion & Film
Wednesday, 27 March 2024, 1900-2045
London: V&A Museum
https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/PaeDyR2xd3B/photography-fashion-film

The study of photography collectors and collecting in the nineteenth century promises to open rich new ground for us in understanding about how the medium was received and regarded during its first golden age. In recent years albums created by such collecting have been the focus of some of the great digitizing projects taking place around the world, and examples in places as far apart as Los Angeles and St. Andrews in Scotland can be viewed remotely by researchers, often with the added help of IIIF (the International Image Interoperability Framework).

I have had the chance to make initial surveys on two albums of work by the Hill, Mann and Adamson partnership which are not yet available in any online form and offer brief accounts of each in the hope of getting them both more firmly on the record. 

The first, which I'm calling here the "Mitchell Album", forms part of a large deposit of papers and albums collected by the great Scottish psychologist and antiquarian Sir Arthur Mitchell (1826-1909) placed with the National Records of Scotland by the WS Society/Signet Library of Edinburgh in 1995.

The second, which I'm calling here the "Brodie Album" relates to the circle of the Scottish artists William Brodie R.S.A. (1815-1881) and John Phillip R.S.A. (1817-1867) and is in the care of the National Library of Scotland.

In the case of the Mitchell Album, I am grateful to the National Records of Scotland for providing superb digital images to create a study surrogate for the delicate original volume (the prints are in excellent condition but the album's hinges are no longer suitable for reading room handling).

The Brodie Album is as yet unimaged but I have given references to the relevant entries in the Hill and Adamson "Bible", Sara Stevenson David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson: Catalogue of their Calotypes taken between 1843 and 1847 in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1981) or, if "not in Stevenson", to the relevant reference in the Dougan Collection at the University of Glasgow. I'd like to thank the staff of the National Library of Scotland for their help in providing me with access to and handling of the album, and in particular Dr. Graham Hogg for information on the album's background and provenance.

The accounts are here:

Mitchell Album

Brodie Album

Some thoughts in summary from the two albums:

• Image 6 of the Mitchell Album, a carbon print, is reversed from Stevenson's George Combe b in the same way as the carbon print at the National Portrait Gallery in London and the carbon print in Andrew Elliot's posthumous Calotypes by D.O. Hill and R. Adamson : illustrating an early stage in the development of photography (Edinburgh : printed for private circulation, 1928). This may further tie the prints in Elliot's book to Thomas Annan's studio c. 1879 and James Craig Annan's account of their production in his 1945 letter to Helmut Gernsheim (as opposed to Elliot using Jessie Bertram's superb carbon prints which has sometimes been suggested)
• In common with better-known Hill, Mann and Adamson albums (e.g. the Bicknell and Stansfield albums) both of these albums conduct a kind of tour of the partnership's activity and inventory, perhaps reinforcing the sense that an idea of what the partnership's work had consisted of both existed on Calton Steps during Hill's lifetime but also survived into a subsequent period.
• The Brodie album - uniquely, I think, amongst surviving albums - contains duplicate prints. A number of explanations work equally well for this, but one might be that pre-prepared selections had been made up at Rock House at some point, with fragments of two such selections acceding to the Brodie/Phillip circle.
• The captions to the MItchell Album, which are in Sir Arthur Mitchell's hand, suggest that by the time his album was compiled memories (and identifications) of the sitters were no longer fresh (and may no longer have been Hill's direct recollections if collecting took place after 1870)
• As the extraordinary and revelatory digitization of the MacKinnon Collection by the National Galleries of Scotland has shown, there are still "new" Hill, Mann and Adamson images waiting to be uncovered. Both Mitchell and Brodie albums contain images "not in Stevenson" or the Dougan and Getty collections, although this may be a matter of digitization catching up with large collections of that kind. 

My interest in the albums comes as part of my continuing research into the background of the Signet Library copy of Hill, Mann and Adamson's Series of Calotype Views of St. Andrews which came to light in October 2022 and which was the subject of an event at the Library in March 2023. The next stage of the project will be the release of a revised and much enlarged account of the album and its fellow survivors in other collections.

This will be in print, appearing later in the year and distributed to major institutional and photographic libraries, with sections covering:

The Signet Library album: discovery, provenance, conservation
Analysis of other surviving copies
Comprehensive review of existing scholarship
Relationship to St Andrews photography
Relationship with other Hill and Adamson albums
Album images

There will also be a new digital surrogate for the Signet Library album accompanying a shorter online version of the printed account. All enquiries please to James Hamilton, Research Principal at the WS Society at jhamilton[at]wssociety.co.uk

“In 2012, I found a piece of material in a rock pool that changed my life. Mistaking this moving piece of cloth for seaweed, started the recovery of synthetic clothing from around the coastline of Britain for the next ten years”. 

Two hundred and two ‘specimens’ of clothing and garments recovered from one hundred and twenty-one beaches mimic different species of marine algae, with the intention to raise awareness about the over consumption of synthetic plastic clothing also referred to as ‘fast fashion’, which is currently having the greatest impact on global climate change. 

After seeing an original copy of the book, ‘Photographs of British Algae, Volume 1’, by Anna Atkins, at The Royal Society in London, Barker was captivated by its detail and significance, for the way it changed how we looked at science in 1800’s, but more importantly for the possibility to re-create similar work that could engage how we look at science in connection with a present-day critical issue.

In this new presentation titled ‘Cyanotype Imperfections’, instead of the Atkins ‘Cyanotype Impressions’, the book includes 202 cyanotype images and 8 cyanotype text pages using original 1800’s J Whatman paper that Atkins used from the original Turkey Mill in Kent. 

The project was first published in The Guardian on 16 March, Atkins' birthday. See: https://twitter.com/plasticpieces/status/1768926794114089403

PHOTOGRAPHS OF BRITISH ALGAE CYANOTYPE IMPERFECTIONS
A - B (Atkins - Barker) 1843 – 2023. 
See: https://www.atkins-barker.com/

UPDATED see: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/19/mandy-barker-ocean-waste-cyanotypes-anna-atkins and https://twitter.com/plasticpieces/status/1771099288782651535